Who’s talking in BART dispute? Nobody

It was downright lonely at the BART Board of Directors meeting in Oakland Thursday morning.

After months of meetings at which BART employees and union officials filled the smallish board chambers in the Kaiser Center to lobby the directors for decent contracts, nobody showed up to speak to the board about labor issues Thursday. Not a soul.

Perhaps that was appropriate since silence seems to be the rule since the 60-day cooling off period ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown started on Aug. 12. The idea behind the period is to allow the two sides more time, free of a pressing deadline, to work out an agreement and avert a strike.

But so far, no meetings have taken place, and none are scheduled. Officials from both BART and its unions say they are ready to meet but are waiting for the state mediators to notify them of a schedule.

Meanwhile, the BART board met in closed session following Thursday’s meeting for a briefing on negotiations. And commuters counted the days remaining until the cooling off period ends — that’s 49.